Sherry Arnold (43) left her home for a pre-dawn run and never returned

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Sherry Arnold (43) left her home for a pre-dawn run and never returned

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Authorities resumed their search Tuesday for a missing Montana teacher who left her home for a pre-dawn run and never returned.

The only publicized clue into Sherry Arnold's Saturday disappearance is a single running shoe, found by a ditch along her running route in her hometown of Sidney.

The FBI and local law enforcement are investigating the possibility that Arnold, 43, was abducted from the town along the North Dakota border, which has been changing rapidly in recent years due to an oil boom.

After three days of searching by hundreds of residents, police, firefighters and others, the plan was to re-canvass areas around town that already had been searched at least once, officials said.

If nothing new in the case emerges, authorities said they would consider scaling back the search.

"At some point we feel like we've exhausted the possibilities in that area where she was last seen and apparently disappeared from," said FBI spokeswoman Deborah Bertrand.

Bertrand added that the search could take a different direction by Wednesday, potentially with searchers going to door-to-door in residential neighborhoods.

Arnold, a popular math teacher who grew up on a ranch outside Sidney, was married to another school system employee, Gary Arnold. The couple has five children from prior marriages, including two living at home and attending the same school where their mother worked for the past 18 years.

The school district has played an active role in the search by lending buses to transport members of search teams and setting up a fund to defer expenses.
Mayor Bret Smelser said the effort had covered all of Sidney and surrounding areas of Richland County. He said federal agents had met with family members, including Arnold's parents, Ron and Sherry Whited, and pledged to press hard for answers.
"The promise they made Ron and Sherry was that they wouldn't give up until they had found something or found Sherry," Smelser said.

Sherry Arnold went running around 6:30 a.m. last Saturday in her small town in eastern Montana, but never returned home.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: "Dozens of tips" were called in, one leading to man's arrest,FBI says

Sherry Arnold worked for Sidney Public Schools

The FBI says a man is in custody and another "is being questioned"

Arnold was last seen six days ago out on a morning run in eastern Montana

(CNN) -- A 43-year-old Montana schoolteacher last seen six days ago while out on a morning jog has been found dead, her school said Friday.Sidney Public Schools, for which Sherry Arnold had worked as a math teacher at Sidney High School, announced that the school district learned of her death around 9:30 a.m. Friday.No other details were immediately available.Law enforcement officers have taken "one adult male into custody, and another adult male is being questioned" in relation to Arnold's case, the FBI said Friday in a statement."The investigation to determine what happened to Ms. Arnold continues," the federal agency said.Arnold went running around 6:30 a.m. last Saturday in her small town in eastern Montana, but never returned home. Other than one of her running shoes found along her route, authorities had not indicated -- until Friday -- that there had been any sign of her.The woman's disappearance rocked Sidney, located about 100 miles south of the Canadian border. It has a population of just below 5,200 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.A massive search effort involved hundreds of volunteers, as well as law enforcement authorities and National Guard members. Authorities on Wednesday "determined the prudent course of action is to scale back the ground search.""We're such a small community, and crime is absolutely unheard of," said Christine Mullen, 26, a CNN iReport contributor, who joined the search effort, even though she didn't know Arnold personally. "We don't lock our car doors. (We're) completely shocked."The FBI said Friday that "dozens of tips were called into (a) tip line" -- one of which led to the arrest and questioning.Sidney Public Schools said that all sporting events for Friday had been canceled and "additional counselors (were) on hand" to help students cope.On Thursday, the victim's husband, Gary Arnold, told HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell that he was hopeful that his wife would be found alive. The disappearance has been "very difficult" on the couple's children, though they were trying to stay positive, he said."Their mother has raised them well," he said. "They are troupers, they are hanging in there, and they are not giving up hope, either."

Two men have been arraigned on charges of aggravated kidnapping in connection with the death of Sidney High School teacher Sherry Arnold and are being held in Williston, N.D., Sidney Police Chief Frank DiFonzo said Saturday morning.
Officials at the Williams County jail in Williston confirmed that two men are being held there on aggravated kidnapping charges but declined to release their names, citing an ongoing investigation by the FBI.

A jail official said that they have been instructed by the FBI to not release any information on the two men.

FBI spokeswoman Debbie Bertram said on Saturday that any information on the arraignments, including the men's names, would have to come "through the appropriate court, if that information is available."

It wasn't immediately clear when the arraignment happened and documents detailing it could not be obtained on Saturday.

Investigators in North Dakota are continuing to search the area and gather evidence in the case. DiFonzo called the rumors circulated Friday night that Arnold may have been killed in a hit-and-run type accident "all kinds of speculation."

DiFonzo said he expects the two men to be extradited to Sidney from Williston at some point. He didn't want to speculate on a timeline because of the ongoing federal investigation.

On Friday, officials announced that a 47-year-old man was in custody in Williston, N.D., and 22-year-old man was being questioned in Rapid City, S.D. after a call came in to a tip line set up for information on Arnold's disappearance.

While investigators did not confirm it on Friday, Arnold's family and the Sidney school district said they had been informed that she was dead.

Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser said residents on Saturday would like to know more as part of the grieving process but they understand an investigation is ongoing.

"Evidently there's still more work to do," Smelser said. "People would like to have more information, but if that information is going to hinder the investigation, then we understand."

Arnold went missing on Jan. 7 during a morning run. County law enforcement officials, emergency responders and hundreds of citizens spent several days scouring the Sidney area looking for any sign of her.

The same day she went missing, searchers found what investigators and Arnold's family have confirmed to be one of her shoes, the only publicly acknowledged clue in the case.

Arnold was a popular math teacher at Sidney High School and a longtime resident of the community who lived there with her husband, Gary Arnold, and their five children from previous marriages.

After joining the search at mid-week, the FBI said Arnold may have been abducted, although officials also said it was one of many possibilities under investigation.

Officials have remained tight-lipped about information in the case.

A tip line, which DiFonzo said received "dozens and dozens of tips," was set up to gather information and on Friday, it appeared to pay off.

"Today, as a result of a tip, we're able to announce that a significant breakthrough has been made," DiFonzo said at a Friday press conference.

At that meeting, he said that a 47-year-old man was in custody in Williston, N.D., and that a 22-year-old man was being questioned in Rapid City.

Sgt. Sue Fox with the Rapid City Police Department said she could neither confirm nor deny any details of the incident since it is the FBI's case.

"We want to be together as a family," Karen Arnold Truax, Gary Arnold's daughter who lives in St. Paul, Minn., said on Friday. "We appreciate everything that everyone did to help us in this search. We are so heartbroken that this is the outcome. We just sincerely appreciate all the love and support that continues to come from the community."

On Friday evening, the community held a memorial service for Arnold at the high school gymnasium. Several hundred people -- friends, family, current and former students and local religious leaders -- attended.

"She was an amazing math teacher," former student Ashley Cooley said at the memorial. "She loved what she did and she loved her students. She had an amazing heart."

Smelser said the community has held three prayer vigils but he's not aware of another being planned.

"There's always church on Sunday," he said.

Despite the unknowns, he said the community is moving forward.

"We'll wait for the final evidence and then as a community we need to have a serious discussion to get us back to where we were and make us whole, to give us peace back in our hearts and a sense of security," he said.

Two Colorado men were being held in a North Dakota jail on Sunday on kidnapping charges in connection with the disappearance of a Montana teacher, authorities said.

Lester Vann Waters, 47, and Michael Keith Spell, 22, of Parachute, Colo., were detained after a tip to a hotline set up by authorities, police said. They are charged with aggravated kidnapping.

The pair was being held in a county jail about 45 minutes away from Sidney, Montana, where high school math instructor Sherry Arnold disappeared more than a week ago near her home.

The town's mayor and Arnold's husband said her body has not been recovered, but police have said they believe she is dead.

The mayor of Sidney, a 5,000-population town on the upper Missouri River, said stepped-up oil and gas production from hydraulic fracturing has brought more people and economic activity as well as crime to the town.
He said firearms sales and permits to carry concealed handguns were on the rise, Smelser said.

A man who said the crack cocaine he was smoking "brought the devil out in him" was looking for a woman to abduct and kill before he strangled a school teacher who happened to jog near him in Montana, a prosecutor said in a sworn statement.

The first public details about how authorities believe that Sherry Arnold, 43, was kidnapped, slain and buried in a shallow grave, emerged in an affidavit filed in state court on Friday by Richland County, Montana, prosecutor Mike Weber.

Most of the account, Weber wrote, stemmed from a confession obtained from the younger of two men charged with kidnapping the woman, whom they encountered along a truck route on the outskirts of the northeastern Montana community of Sidney.

Arnold, a high school math instructor, vanished after setting out on January 7 for a predawn run, and authorities are still searching for her body.

Two men from the western Colorado town of Parachute, Lester Vann Waters, 47, and Michael Keith Spell, 22, were arrested last month and charged with aggravated kidnapping in connection with her disappearance. But little had been disclosed about the case against them before Weber filed his 12-page affidavit, which was posted online by the Sidney Herald newspaper.

Spell told authorities that Waters, in a crack-induced frenzy, ordered him to grab Arnold and pull her into the Ford Explorer they were riding in, forcing her to lose a running shoe -- later found on the truck route by police -- in the ensuing struggle, the affidavit says.

"Spell said Waters got into the back seat with the female and 'choked her out,'" according to Weber's sworn account.

The victim "lay dead inside the vehicle and under a blanket" while Waters and Spell drove to Williston, North Dakota, about 45 miles northeast of Sidney, where they threw her clothing into a dumpster before stashing her body in a rural area outside town, Weber said Spell told investigators.

The pair then went to a Walmart store to buy a shovel to dig her grave. Spell said Waters forced him to dig the hole -- from 2- to 3-feet deep -- where Arnold was buried, the affidavit says. He said the site was at the end of a tree row used as a windbreak, or shelter belt, near an old farmstead, according to the statement.

Spell said he later felt remorse when he saw posters of the missing school teacher, telephoned his family in Colorado and told them what had happened, then hitchhiked to Rapid City, South Dakota, the affidavit says.

Authorities identified Waters and Spell as suspects after a tipster on January 11 called a police hotline to say that Spell's girlfriend in Colorado said that he had told her that he and Waters "picked up a lady walking along the road, killed her, and then buried her," the affidavit says.

Authorities in North Dakota arrested Waters in Williston on January 12. They recovered a receipt in Waters' possession that showed a purchase at Walmart of a shovel, which was later returned to the store and subsequently retrieved by investigators, the court document said.

FBI agents on January 13 arrested Spell in Rapid City, South Dakota, where according to the affidavit, he confessed to the kidnapping and killing.

They were extradited back to Montana last week.

Spell told investigators that Waters had been smoking crack, which Waters told Spell "brought the devil out in him" and made him capable of doing anything, according to the statement. "Spell said that Waters began talking about kidnapping and killing a female," the affidavit shows.

On January 15, the FBI asked landowners in far northeastern Montana and in three rural counties of neighboring northwestern North Dakota to check shelter belts with mature or rotted trees for Arnold's body.

Court documents claim that Waters and Spell left Parachute, Colorado, a West Slope city known for oil shale exploration and extraction, to find work amid an oil and gas boom in the Sidney and Williston areas.

The suspected abduction and murder of Arnold, who colleagues described as a well-respected and well-liked teacher, has cast a pall over Sidney, a 5,000-population farming community coping with an influx of newcomers linked to energy production.

Firearms and pepper spray sales have been on the rise -- particularly among women -- in Sidney since Arnold's disappearance and presumed death, Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser said in a recent interview.

"Basically, we have a community of women afraid to go out a night," he told Reuters on Saturday.

This happened here among runners after the Chelsea King killing. I figure the chances are still slim enough. I would never just sit at home due to fear, but sadly a lot of women do. I got freaked at some whacky dude out on the trails today. I always plot what I'm going to do just in case I can't outrun them.

If I was a woman I would not go out on my own without some type of weapon, period. I know a girl who hikes a lot and goes into the wilderness. She carries a pistol on her hip at all times. That way anyone approaching her already knows she is packing, which helps to avoid situations from occurring in the first place. If nothing else it says "Look for another victim."

I wear caps with flat brims and sunglasses with white frames. I...DROOL...

The only thing I do by myself is walk my dog, and maybe I'm naive in thinking shady characters will be less likely to attack a girl with a 70 pound dog with her. I prob should start carrying a weapon of sorts, but I have been known to stagger my keys in my fingers when someone/something is making me uncomfortable.

I carry mace, but it's efficacy is highly variable. My brother sent me a baton, but it's too heavy. In reality the chances of me dying in a car wreck are much higher, so I just go with it. I hope I never recluse myself due to fear. I trail run a lot, so my main fear is snakes and mountain lions. Last year, some dude got bit and died out in some of the trails I run in. I think someone on here knew him. But again, the odds just aren't high enough.

If I was a woman I would not go out on my own without some type of weapon, period. I know a girl who hikes a lot and goes into the wilderness. She carries a pistol on her hip at all times. That way anyone approaching her already knows she is packing, which helps to avoid situations from occurring in the first place. If nothing else it says "Look for another victim."

Yea, I'm not into guns. I'm not necessarily anti-guns, they just aren't my thing. Plus I'm a lousy shot. Plus I'd probably kill a lot of people. Like my lab partner... Anyway, I read about a guy who ran with a gun and had to use it against a cat or bear. Made me wish I were a gun person.

If I was a woman I would not go out on my own without some type of weapon, period. I know a girl who hikes a lot and goes into the wilderness. She carries a pistol on her hip at all times. That way anyone approaching her already knows she is packing, which helps to avoid situations from occurring in the first place. If nothing else it says "Look for another victim."

That's actually a really great idea. I wonder if that's legal here? Even if carrying a gun is not legal, a fake gun might be? I'll have to look that up.

Really? I'll have to look that up to. Boy, if I had a dime for everything I don't know...

A whistle might scare off a "city" human but it's not going to do you a bit of good if you are somewhere in the wilds of Montana... I also wouldn't be too sure about the bears and big cats. I know a lot of people who use bird calls and the like to attract cougars during hunting season, so... Bear spray or pepper spray maybe?

Originally Posted by bowieluva

lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.

A couple years ago I was running in my neighborhood. Some creepo stopped me to ask about the running trails in the area. Most runners know that others will not stop you while you're out because you get into a groove when you've been out for a while, so I knew this guy was up to shenanigans. He started asking me if I like professional massages and started grabbing his junk (spandex - another red flag ) I told him to fuck off and took off running. He had his car parked less than a block away and seriously started chasing me in his car. He parked on a side street and jumped out trying to block me so I bee-lined to a random house and luckily the woman let me right in and called 911. Freaking idiot had a personalized license plate so I knew at least his car. The police came and the cop actually drove me home. He was radioing in the details and the guy on the other end said: "Is sheeee hot?" At least that got me laughing.

Moral of the story - I started putting my phone down into my sports bra and carried pepper spray with me. Always the assholes that have to ruin for everyone else. Don't know what happened with the creeper.

I don't think you can defend against mountain lions. They attack by stealth and usually go for the head. You probably won't have much time to defend yourself before your brain is in their mouth.

And just because some guy hasn't abducted you in the past, doesn't mean they won't abduct you tomorrow. Every abduction victim went their entire lives without being abducted, until it actually happened one day. Nothing wrong with carrying protection to prevent/deter an abduction.

I wear caps with flat brims and sunglasses with white frames. I...DROOL...

What about an air horn? Would that freak mountain lions and cougars away? Everyone in my family has an air horn, not to distract from predators, but to scare the shit out of each other. I took my nephew to our local "cry baby" bridge at midnight. While he was standing there waiting to see headlights come out of the water and listening for crying baby sounds, I hit the air horn. It scared the living crap out of him. I thought we were both going to fall in the water. Me from laughing so hard and him from being so scared. Good times here in the Midwest. Anyway, carry on.